The Minnesota Secretary of State’s office reports that Republican Tom Emmer’s campaign has filed 2,839 frivolous challenges through the first four days of the recount. A large majority of those frivolous challenges challenges were in Hennepin County. Emmer’s team filed 2113 frivolous challenges in that county alone. Emmer said earlier today that he plans to withdraw many of those challenges if his campaign is able to review them.

Although the recount is not over, it’s nearly impossible for Emmer to win the recount. The total number of Emmer’s frivolous and legitimate ballots challenges is 3573. That means he’s still 5197 votes short of catching Dayton if you look at Dayton’s lead before the recount started.

Dayton’s campaign has announced it will withdraw all of their frivolous challenges. Here’s the Secretary of State report:

About the blogger

Tom Scheck has covered politics and state government for more than ten years for MPR News. He’s covered several gubernatorial campaigns, two statewide recounts, the presidential bids of Tim Pawlenty and Michele Bachmann, U.S. Senate races, close Congressional contests and the Minnesota Legislature. He lives in Falcon Heights with his wife, son and dog. He can sometimes be found chasing a white ball on a golf course. It isn’t a straight walk. Tips are welcome at tscheck@mpr.org